There is no Justice Committee meeting 1/12/2023 since we hosted the 10/2 Monday Monthly Meeting with speaker Retired Judge LaDoris Cordell. If you weren't able to attend, here is a link to the video of the program.
Monthly Member Meeting 10/2/2023-The Fix
Judge Cordell was informative and engaging. We plan to have her return for the LWVMC Book Club in February when we'll discuss her book Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It. Stay tuned for further information and how to get a signed copy of her book.
Human Trafficking is one of our focuses as the Justice Committee. You may have an interest in this World Without Exploitation webinar which is Wednesday 10/12 at 10 a.m. Pacific. Law Enforcement Strategies: Confronting Demand in Equality Model Jurisdictions, where you will hear from four experts: Bob Rodgers, President and CEO of Street Grace on evidence-based demand reduction strategies to eradicate the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC); Benjamin Gauen, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney with Washington State’s King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office on how to prosecute traffickers and other exploiters without arresting survivors; Detective Joseph Scaramucci, a nationally renowned law enforcement expert on human trafficking, who created the Human Trafficking Unit for the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office in Texas, will share his experience doing groundbreaking work fighting demand; and survivor leader Melanie Thompson who has worked with law enforcement in recent months as New York City determines how to address its growing sex trade.
Here's some more information:A podcast on the Equality Model: A Paradigm Change to Reduce Sex Trafficking - 33 minutes, with an expert from Polaris, one of the nation's leading anti-trafficking organizations. https://endinghumantrafficking.org/219/
It’s too simplistic to think of decriminalization bills as only about the person selling sex, when in fact these bills impact multiple different actors in the sex trade and sex trafficking ecosystem. The full decriminalization model proposes decriminalizing everything in the sex trade including the pimps, brothel owners, sex buyers, and people directly selling sex. The equality model, also known as the Nordic model or partial decrim, decriminalizes the act of directly selling sex and offers support services for individuals who wish to leave the sex trade. However, it would still remain illegal for pimping, owning a brothel, or buying sex. There has been resounding support amongst the survivor community for the equality model. Especially considering that it would be more difficult to identify sex trafficking within a full decriminalization model, rather than in the legal structure we have in place now or the equality model paradigm.
Here's a link to the opposing view. They consider the Equality Model, the Entrapment Model.
Why Decriminalization of Sex Work - Decriminalize Sex Work
Our next Justice Committee Meeting will be on Thursday, November 9th at 10 a.m. I'll try to arrange for someone to come and speak about the Equality Model and how it reduces demand for the sex trade.
Any questions, please send me an email or give me a call.
Best,
Nancy Weber, Chair lwvmarin.justiceone@gmail.com
